TikTok Boom

'It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller – this one does.' – Azeem Azhar, Founder, Exponential View

'Vital to understanding how[TikTok] works and the impact it's having.' – Damian Collins MP, former chairman of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee

'TikTok Boom is a must read for students, scholars, and policy makers.' – David Craig, Clinical Professor, USC Annenberg

A whole generation is hooked on TikTok. In just a few years, it’s raced ahead of WhatsApp and Instagram to become the biggest app in the world.

But how did it burst into life and overtake its rivals? Delving deep into its upstart origins, TikTok Boom charts the astonishingly rapid rise of China’s viral video app. It yields new insights into its culture, addictive algorithm, and influencer ecosystem. And it reveals the influence its owners in Beijing are having on hundreds of millions worldwide through the use of little-known content guidelines.

TikTok is the emerging battleground for a geopolitical tussle between East and West for control of social media. TikTok Boom is a rollercoaster business story bristling with ambition and drama.

Find out where TikTok came from and where it's going. Find out how TikTok Works and whether it can work for you.

Reviews

'A careful, detailed teardown of the people, culture and technology behind the world's most dynamic social network. It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller – this one does.' – Azeem Azhar, Founder, Exponential View

'It's clear that Stokel-Walker's strength is that he's not just TikTok-literate, he's TikTok-fluent. He knows the product, the people, and the entire ecosystem inside and out, and it is this familiarity that makes his telling so compelling, because he knows how to make you feel like you, too, are an insider in this strange new world.' - Rui Ma, founder, Tech Buzz China

'Blending journalistic narrative with state-of-the-art academic research, no other author comes close to weaving this epic tale of the rise of China’s first global platform threatening Silicon’s Valley hegemony while operating as inflection point around the rise of one globe two Internet systems. This...